ANC takes blows but scoops N West

The ANC appeared to be limping to victory in some municipalities in North West on Thursday night.

While the final verdict was yet to be delivered in key councils such as Rustenburg, and the ruling party appeared to be taking blows in some areas with a decline in support, the ANC was holding on to power in the province.

Most of the damage was done by independent candidates who broke ranks with the ANC to stand in this election under the banner of Forum 4 Service Delivery.

Even a boastful North West ANC chairman Supra Mahumapelo appeared to concede on Thursday that the party has to pay particular attention to parts of Rustenburg.

But he said that while the party had made mistakes, it had humbled itself to the people and asked them to work together to resolve problems.

“Because of the PR (proportional representation) system you will have some of the opposition in the municipalities,” he said.

“We are going to be working with them to teach them how we run the government in the people’s province.”

Incomplete results showed the DA and EFF had won a considerable number of seats in Rustenburg – a coveted municipality in the province.

By late on Thursday, the EFF had won two wards and was leading with votes in several others. The DA and ANC had also won two wards.

The ruling party’s support tallied at 49 percent of the vote, EFF at 23 percent, DA at 22 percent and the forum at 4 percent.

In Mamusa local municipality, Schweizer-Reneke, the ANC’s support dropped by 20 percent compared to 2011.

The largest share of the lost ANC votes went to the forum, which leapt ahead of the EFF to claim three seats in the council with 16 percent of the votes.

In Lekwa Teemane, the ANC remained in charge with 10 seats, but the forum took 8 percent of the ANC’s 10 percent decline.

The forum is likely to play kingmaker in several municipalities in North West, in particular Rustenburg, in a case there is no clear winner.

Both the DA and EFF hinted at a possibility of looking for coalition partners in the absence of a clear winner anywhere in the province.

@thabiso_tk